Dialing letters from std. phone keypad
 

Had my Pearl for quite a while now but I got stumped yesterday.

Called into a phone system that required me to spell a person's last name on the dial pad. I looked at my phone stupified...couldn't do it!

Is there some screen that shows you what the letters are for each digit on a standard dial pad? What are you others doing when faced with this challenge?

I know when you are dialing a number that has letters in it all you do is hold down the alt button and spell it out. I don't know for sure if it will work for that but you can give it a try.

The easiest way to remember this is that there are 3 letters assigned to every number except the number 1, 7 and 9. 1 has no letters assigned to it, 7 and 9 have 4 letters. 9 is easy to remember because it's the last 4 letters of the alphabet. You'll have to remember that 7 is assigned pqrs. I usually look at my phone when I need to reference this.

BBkiller's method works.

On a BB with a full keypad, you just press ALT + the letter.

On a BB with the smaller keypad (like the Pearl), you press ALT + the letter (if the letter is the first letter on the button), or ALT + the letter + the letter (if the letter is the second letter on the button).

For example, on the 7130k, there is a button that has both the letters J and K on them.

Pressing ALT + that key once = J
Pressing ALT + that key twice = K

That's for dialing a number, correct. He's talking about interacting with a touch tone automated phone system.

Holding down the ALT key and using multi-tap WILL work. It's the same on all devices. If it's has a full keyboard, hold down the ALT and just dial the letters. If it's a 71xx or 81xx, hold down the ALT and multi-tap.

bbkiller and arisobrat are correct.

BBKiller's method works fine.

which one is the alt button?

bottom left of your keyboard

thanks
 

now how do I change it back to dial numbers?!!

when I touch the numbers, I type letters now...

:(

go it, I had caps on, I still confused, sometimes when I unlock my phone, I can't cause it's locked in Caps mode...

I'll figure it out one day.

If you lock it in caps mode you need to go to a text application (like compose email) in order to clear the caps lock.

I use a cool free app called 'spell n dial' that you can type in what you want, and it will give you the correct numbers and let you dial. Sorry I dont have a link, but google and Im sure you will find. If not, ask me and I will dig it up for ya.